Embattled social network TikTok on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to put a temporary halt to an impending ban as the social network waits for its appeal to be decided. TikTok will be banned from U.S. app stores as of January 19, 2025, due to parent company ByteDance not selling TikTok to a firm outside of China, as mandated by a bill passed in April.
TikTok is asking the Supreme Court to hear an appeal, citing the same free speech argument that a lower appeals court rejected. TikTok’s petition to the Supreme Court claims that Congress has “enacted a massive and unprecedented speech restriction,” and that TikTok is one of the “most popular and important venues for communication” in the U.S.
ByteDance was given nine months to sell TikTok to a company located outside of China, but ByteDance has long claimed that doing so would be impossible. The company claims that it is not able to hand over the TikTok source code to a new owner because it would take years for engineers to become familiar enough with it to perform routine maintenance, and ByteDance also does not plan to allow a third-party company to access its TikTok algorithm.
In May, TikTok parent company ByteDance filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government to put a stop to an April bill forcing ByteDance to sell TikTok to a company outside of China or face a ban in the United States. The bill required ByteDance to sell TikTok to a company outside of China within a nine-month period, and if the sale doesn’t happen, TikTok won’t be able to be distributed in the United States.
TikTok claimed that the bill was unconstitutional because it infringes on free speech, but the court rejected that claim.
Statement on Filing Application for Emergency Injunction Pending Appeal with the Supreme Court:
""The Supreme Court has an established record of upholding Americans’ right to free speech. Today, we are asking the Court to do what it has traditionally done in free speech cases:…
— TikTok Policy (@TikTokPolicy) December 16, 2024
China has also announced that it will oppose any sale of the TikTok app and any sale would require the approval of the Chinese government.
If TikTok is not sold off, Apple, Google, and other app store proprietors will be required to remove the app from their stores. Users that have already downloaded the app would be allowed to continue to use it, although there would be now way to reinstall the app if it is removed from a user’s device.
U.S. lawmakers are concerned that ByteDance could force ByteDance to hand over information from U.S. users, while also worrying that China could spread political propaganda via TikTok.
President-elect Donald Trump is the wild card in all of this, as the he could lift or delay the ban after taking office in January. CNBC reports that Trump on Monday said that his administration will “take a look at TikTok.” Although Trump had tried to ban TikTok when he was in previously in office, he said earlier this year that he opposes the law passed by Congress.
